Shandong Jianzhu University fired Deng Xiangchao for his ‘erroneous remarks’ on Weibo

A Chinese professor who posted critical remarks about Mao Zedong on social media is the latest to find out that, under President Xi Jinping, taking issue with the Communist Party's past brings trouble.

Shandong Jianzhu University last week fired Deng Xiangchao, a professor in the school’s art institute, for his “erroneous remarks” on the Weibo social-media service. In the aftermath of the postings, he was vilified by protesters and online, with some calling him "the People's Public Enemy."

Mr. Deng’s posts last month hit at a part of Mao’s legacy that has been tricky for the Communist Party to address: the deaths associated with the revolutionary leader’s policies and campaigns. "If he'd died in 1945, China would have seen 6 million fewer killed in war. If he'd died in 1958, 30 million fewer would've starved to death,” said one post. “It wasn't until 1976 when he finally died that we at last had food to eat. The only correct thing he did was to die."

In firing Mr. Deng, university leaders noted the outcry his posts had created and reported the issue to provincial authorities, said a propaganda officer with the school. A notice posted by the government-backed university on its internal website said the nature of Mr. Deng’s posts was vile and their influence was very bad.

Mr. Deng wasn’t reachable for comment. His Weibo account appears to have been deleted.

His punishment fits with more aggressive policing of dissent under President Xi, with a renewed sensitivity to criticisms of the party’s past, particularly under Mao.

"There's been a significant tightening of what people can say, particularly in public. To speak about historical figures like Mao has become more sensitive than it was five or 10 years ago," said Kerry Brown, director of the Lau China Institute at King's College London.

"The party is demanding respect and that means respecting the history of the party," he said. "Obviously Mao is important to that history. You can't have a pick and mix attitude."

Mao’s radical policies resulted in mass deaths and waves of political persecution. His Great Leap Forward drive to increase harvests led to widespread famine and more than 20 million deaths at the lower estimates of Chinese researchers; more than 30 million is a widely accepted toll.

Those episodes are rarely allowed full public discussion. In addressing Mao’s legacy in the early 1980s, his successor Deng Xiaoping declared him “70% right and 30% wrong.”

Still, the party embraces Mao as a symbol of its legitimacy, hanging his portrait in Tiananmen Square and putting his face on every banknote. Despite the fact that his father was purged in the Cultural Revolution, Mr. Xi has declared it unacceptable to critically dismiss Mao's 30-year reign and delink it from the country’s recent decades of rapid development.

Last year, Chinese authorities purged top editorial staff at Yanhuang Chunqiu, a reform-minded journal that often featured searching articles on the Cultural Revolution and other events in party history. Censors have also shuttered dozens of history-themed social media accounts for spreading "unhealthy information."

After a surreptitiously videotaped lecture showing a respected academic at the party’s elite training academy criticizing Mao went viral last summer, a backlash ensued. Wang Changjiang said in the videotape that Mao had been unable to satisfy people's basic wants of food and clothing. Shortly thereafter, Mr. Wang stepped down from his position as the director of a research department at the Central Party School, citing reasons of age.

The year prior, a prominent television host was suspended after a video of him mocking Mao at a private dinner surfaced online.

In the latest instance, reposting Professor Deng’s remarks also caused repercussions for a television employee in the central city of Luohe. Liu Yong was suspended from his advertising job, according to Luohe Television’s official Weibo account, for "making erroneous comments and distorting the truth" on his personal Weibo account. Reached by phone, a colleague said that Mr. Liu had recirculated material from Mr. Deng’s Weibo account on his own personal Weibo account, which has since been suspended.